Briefing on New Primary School Syllabus (PERI HA)

Dad just attended the new primary school syllabus called PERI HA. Mainly old wine in new bottle. Holy Grail i.e. streaming, End-of-Year Exams, PSLE still remains with some adjustments. "Streaming" is now a dirty word.  And yes, after some parents's persistent asking, streaming is now renamed "Ability Banding" based on year assessment results. Class "ability banding" in the name of "efficiency" (i.e. separating the faster and slower learners) will be done after P2 exam. But with some important changes:

1. Dates of End-of-Year Exam won't be announced. Would be given as "surprise tests" for school to assess pupils' true learning abilities.
2. Exams should be more bite-sized with larger fonts and pictures.Can happen in-between lessons and spread over a short period e.g. part 1 today, part 2 next tue without you knowing.
3. Less emphasis on written assessment and more on wider range of task-oriented assessments. Doesn't mean written assessment is not important, it's still form the largest component (just less emphasized).
4. More fine-granular "ability banding" instead of EM1, 2, 3 streaming in the past. Now possible to have Higher, Standard and Foundation subjects combo. For example, it's possible for a pupil to do Higher Chinese and Foundation Maths together.         

So what does it mean?

Stress is always there, just in different forms. Instead of cramming your kids during exam period, you've to "spread" the cram. Instead of doing more assessment books, you've to train your kids to speak up more in public. Instead of engaging tutors, you've to teach your kids in everyday's life. The mindset now is parents are also "co-teachers" along with school teachers. School is there to help you n your kids. Schools now conduct regular "courses" for parents on how to teach all the subjects. In short, kids with stay-at-home aka "more involved" parents are now more "advantaged".